On an autumnal New York Friday, CULTURED took over the Cherry Lane Theatre for the inaugural CultForum, a summit bringing artists, actors, filmmakers, and writers into far-reaching dialogue. Guests arrived for light bites at noon (with a splash of Dom Pérignon champagne) before an afternoon packed with a series of conversations between creatives. Inside the historic West Village theater, the usual fourth wall gave way to an intimate exchange of ideas moving between artistic ambition, the anxieties and fulfillment of making creative work, and the peculiar business of putting it into the world.
Nearly 15 years and more than 90 print issues after founding CULTURED, Editor-in-Chief Sarah Harrelson welcomed guests with a reflection on the magazine’s evolution from a contemporary art publication into a platform spanning film, fashion, literature, theater, architecture, and design. CultForum, she explained, was an opportunity to bring those creative worlds together in person. “Not for sound bites or quick exchanges, but for real conversations,” she told the audience. “The kind that surprise us, challenge us, and stay with us long after we’ve left the room.”
Act I of the two-act programming opened with “Playing with Fire,” a conversation between actor Sarah Paulson and playwright and novelist Jordan Tannahill about creative vulnerability, and the complicated relationship between artists and their critics. Paulson, reflecting on the experience of success and winning her first Emmy, admitted that “no one is as happy for you as you are,” while Tannahill considered the responsibility of making work that unsettles. “As an artist, you put something out there to generate discourse, to generate dialogue, about things that are uncomfortable for us and unresolved,” he said.
Next, critic Jerry Saltz welcomed gallerist Jeffrey Deitch and artist Karon Davis to the stage for “Making Art History,” which turned to the overlooked narratives that shape Davis’s practice, from the history of Black performers in the U.S. to the community engagement that defined her critical work with the Underground Museum, the Los Angeles institution she co-founded with her late husband Noah Davis in 2012. “Part of what I want to do is put stories into the world that have been erased or haven’t been recognized,” Davis told Deitch. The artist also offered a glimpse into her famously immersive studio practice, sharing imagery of her works in progress and describing her relationship to her studio as her “therapy session, church, and temple.”
Following a brief intermission, writer Rob Franklin took to the stage to introduce Pulitzer Prize-winning writers Hernan Diaz and Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, who began Act II with “American Myths,” examining their relationship to academia and the fictions that sustain American identity. “We tell ourselves this story of individualism, but when you go home, that crumbles,” Diaz observed. Jacobs-Jenkins offered an equally incisive assessment: “I think family drama is America’s favorite pastime.”
After an introduction from playwright Borna Barzin, Fruit Fly writer Josh Silver and Hacks co-creator Paul W. Downs followed with “The Anatomy of a Hit,” a spirited exchange about the undervaluation of comedy and popular literature, as well as the pressure to keep audiences entertained, or to plumb personal trauma for highbrow credibility or laughs. “The most traumatized people are the funniest. So don’t heal,” Silver joked to the audience. “I would love to find true peace, but I don’t know if it’s possible,” Downs retorted.
The afternoon’s final discussion—“The Female Gaze,” moderated by author Coco Mellors—brought together close friends Sofia Coppola, Tamara Jenkins, and Rachel Feinstein to consider the competing demands of ambition and motherhood. The conversation moved from the frustrations of securing funding and finding time to work, to the pleasures of production and the importance of friendships between women who can uplift and challenge each other. Coppola recalled having her films dismissed for being “too pretty,” while Jenkins reflected on the difficulty of negotiating the bounds of her characters with male executives who didn’t quite understand her perspective.
Feinstein offered a more elemental metaphor for women’s often invisible labor, in the midst of an anecdote about holding a mountain pose in a yoga class: “The world is being held up by women… we’re the secret mountain,” she recalled realizing. Coppola agreed with the sentiment, describing the responsibility of maintaining composure both on set and at home. “As you get older, you can boss people around and not ask for permission,” she smiled.
As the sun began dipping in the sky, the program gave way to a closing cocktail reception, with Harrelson lifting a glass of Dom Pérignon champagne for a final toast to the gathered crowd. The afternoon had delivered on her opening wish that speakers venture a little off script, with conversations ranging from artistic boundary-pushing and American mythology to writing for contemporary audiences and the invisible labor we all carry. As Harrelson put it, “In a world increasingly dominated by distraction, there’s something almost indulgent about simply sitting in a room and listening.” With the room bursting into conversation about all that had been heard throughout the day, CultForum made a compelling case for doing just that.
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